A Book of Gems
Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin Franklin

By Benjamin Franklin

Page 192

inability on thepart of brethren, or parsimoniousness, we must bear hardness as goodsoldiers of Jesus Christ, suffer and toil on, for we shall reap if wefaint not. We must not raise up a money-loving and worldly people;and in order to this end we must not be _money-loving preachers_, nor_worldly_ men ourselves. This is our security against the evil ofcovetousness.

We do not believe the Lord will accept meeting in two or threeconventions in a year, and making three or four contributions and a fewspeeches for missionary work. We must have more telling evangelizingthan this. This kind of work is demoralizing the brethren and drying upall the veins of generosity in them. We shall have more and more _dyingchurches_ till we change our course and go out into the field as we didthirty-five and forty years ago, and hunt up these churches and wakethem up. We must not live with the idea of _sending_ some one to them,but we must _go to_ them; and they must not be _helpless creatures_,and think to support those who go to their relief by _relating theirstories about their being few and poor_, but do according to theirability, and not let the preacher who visits them sacrifice more thana dozen of them, and they only do their little _occasionally_, and hemaking his sacrifices _every meeting_. This will not stand in the dayof judgment.

HOW A PREACHER MAY STAND FAIR.

All we have to do to stand right before the people, is to _be sound_in heart, in the faith, in the life; true to the gospel of our LordJesus Christ; honest and faithful in the whole matter; maintaining,defending, advocating it, as the only divine and gracious systemfor the salvation of a lost world; enforcing it on men for its ownsake, and for the sake of humanity. Our safety is not in a tribunalof learned men, who are _censors_ for us, but in the _judgment of anintelligent and enlightened brotherhood_. They render no hasty judgmentand make no uncertain decisions. They do not anathematize nor hateany man. They do not pronounce on a man for a single utterance or aninadvertence. But when a man becomes perverse, his general course andbearing evincing alienation, and a disposition to be in the wrongâanaversion to the good, the true and the faithfulâthey begin to losetheir interest in him. Every step he takes in the wrong directionlessens the affection for him in the hearts of the people

Text Comparison with Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Imagining it may be equally
agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which
you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's
uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to
write them for you.

My father, tho' he did not approve Sir William's proposition, was yet
pleas'd that I had been able to obtain so advantageous a character
from a person of such note where I had resided, and that I had been so
industrious and careful as to equip myself so handsomely in so short a
time; therefore, seeing no prospect of an accommodation between my
brother and me, he gave his consent to my returning again to
Philadelphia, advis'd me to behave respectfully to the people there,
endeavour to obtain the general esteem, and avoid lampooning and
libeling, to which he thought I had too much inclination; telling me,
that by steady industry and a prudent parsimony I might save enough by
the time I was one-and-twenty to set me up; and that, if I came near
the matter, he would help me out with the rest.

"That in the dry summer months the dust be all swept up into heaps at
proper distances, before the shops and windows of houses are usually
opened, when the scavengers, with close-covered carts, shall also
carry it all away.

Therefore he would
request his Readers, at proper Seasons, to peruse it thro', and
among 340 sacred Hymns they may find out several that suit
their own Case and Temper, or the Circumstances of their Families
or Friends, they may teach their Children such as are
proper for their Age and by treasuring them in their Memory
they may be furnish'd for pious Retirement, or may entertain
their Friends with holy Melody.

Who makes your soap?
Ryan Cook and Tim Maides make the bar soap we sell at Heartlandtrading.co.
Ryan's favorite soap is the peppermint soap.